Case study Wolfson College, Oxford – Decarbonisation Project

© Max Fordham

Wolfson College has committed to decarbonise its estate to achieve net zero by 2030, at the latest. The college currently has a 20-year carbon footprint of 24,000 tonnes of CO₂ across its 15,000m² GIA buildings.

An initial study identified the range of carbon-saving measures, which was then developed into an Energy Audit and Decarbonisation Plan. The plan involves changing the single glazing to triple glazing, replacing the gas boilers with heat pumps, replacing the roofs and installing maximum insulation, upgrading all lighting to LEDs, installing PVs on the new roofs, and installing a 1MWh electrical storage battery. The college is implementing these improvements in phases, the first of which was completed in 2022 and is set to reduce the carbon emissions of the estate by 75%. Calculations also established that the replacement of windows and roofs and the installation of insulation alone would reduce the buildings' heat losses by 80%.

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